• Acacia Research Corp., of Newport Beach, Calif., said its CombiMatrix unit entered a multiyear alliance to develop and manufacture microarrays with its electrochemical detection approach with Toppan Printing Corp., of Tokyo. Toppan will pay CombiMatrix a $1 million up-front fee and additional development and milestones payments as they develop semiconductor microarrays for applications in life sciences research and development as well as diagnostics. Further financial terms were not disclosed.

• Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., entered a nonexclusive worldwide license agreement with DiscoveRx Corp., of Freemont, Calif., that grants DiscoveRx the right to commercialize drug discovery assay products covered by Ariad's NF-(kappa) B patents. DiscoveRx will pay Ariad an up-front license fee and annual license fees, as well as royalties and milestones based on drug discovery product sales. Also, companies using the DiscoveRx NF-(kappa) B/I-(kappa) B discovery products will have to enter separate license deals with Ariad. Academic researchers are not required to enter such deals with Ariad.

• Biomira Inc., of Edmonton, Alberta, said it would raise US$3.7 million through a stock and warrant offering to fund operations through next year. Biomira is offering up to about 3.25 million common shares at $1.14 apiece, a discount of less than 4 percent from Thursday's $1.18 closing price, and up to 548,148 warrants exercisable at $1.66. For every common share purchased, each buyer will receive warrants with a two-year term from the closing date to purchase 0.169 common shares. Rodman & Renshaw Inc., of New York, acted as exclusive placement agent. Separately, Biomira said it repaid all outstanding principal and interest associated with its $15 million private financing of convertible debentures reported Oct. 1, 2001. The final $882,962 installment, paid about a month early, was paid in cash, with no penalty or premium for early repayment.

• ConjuChem Inc., of Montreal, said the FDA cleared its plans to begin a U.S. trial of DAC:GLP-1 for Type II diabetes. The 30-patient Phase I/II study, which will dose its first patient May 27, will enroll five cohorts of six patients. Five will receive escalating intravenous doses of the drug and the other will receive placebo. The study's primary endpoint is to assess the product's safety and tolerability. Secondary endpoints will measure pharmacokinetic and preliminary efficacy parameters. Glucose levels will be monitored seven times daily. ConjuChem, which also is studying the compound in Europe, said it expects to report top-line data in September.

• Genaera Corp., of Plymouth Meeting, Pa., said four weeks of data from a Phase I/II trial pointed to evidence of activity of squalamine such as shrinkage of the size of the choroidal neovascularization lesions associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) patients. Also, Genaera said early trends for visual acuity showed improvement of up to greater than three lines of vision in some patients, and stabilization of vision in all patients thus far. It said it expects to finish therapy, collect follow-up data from all patients in the trial studying the anti-angiogenic drug and provide additional results later this year. Genaera's stock (NASDAQ:GENR) gained 15.9 cents Friday, or 31.8 percent, to close at 65.9 cents.

• Genome Therapeutics Corp., of Waltham, Mass., named Steven Rauscher chairman. Already the company president and CEO, he succeeds Robert Hennessey, who held the position for nine years. Hennessey will remain on the board.

• GenoMed Inc., of St. Louis, said an article published in the May 9, 2003, edition of Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics describes why angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) is associated statistically with both Type I and Type II diabetes mellitus and their complications - kidney failure, blindness and nerve damage. GenoMed, which is developing a treatment to inhibit ACE, said its ability to prevent diabetic kidney failure statistically associates ACE as a cause of diabetes.

• Hemoxymed Inc., of Vernon Hills, Ill., said warrants issued in a May 1998 public offering of common stock of its predecessor company, Ophidian Pharmaceuticals Inc., have expired. One series of warrants, issued to investors in the public offering, had an initial exercise price of $7.32; the other series, issued to the underwriters, had an initial exercise price of $8.24. Upon expiration, there were about 5.9 million public warrants outstanding with an exercise price of $2.39 and about 500,000 underwriter warrants outstanding at $2.69.

• InterMune Inc., of Brisbane, Calif., reported that data from a Phase II trial of pirfenidone for pulmonary fibrosis suggests the drug may be more efficacious than prednisone in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The randomized, double-blind, multicenter Phase II trial enrolled 53 patients with moderate to severe IPF (n=46) or secondary pulmonary fibrosis (n=7). The change from baseline to 12 months in the minimum oxygen saturation measure of a patient's ability to maintain oxygen concentrations in their blood during the six-minute walk test was significantly better in the pirfenidone group than those treated with prednisone (p=0.014).

• King Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Bristol, Tenn., reaffirmed its position that an agreement it entered earlier this year to buy the primary care business of Elan Corp. plc, of Dublin, Ireland, is null and void because of various alleged breaches and misrepresentations by Elan based on information King learned several weeks later. Elan is suing to force King to close the transaction, with a trial date in the supreme court of the state of New York set for May 15. (See BioWorld Today, Jan. 31, 2003.)

• North American Scientific Inc., of Chatsworth, Calif., reported that its Theseus Imaging subsidiary submitted an investigational new drug application to the FDA requesting permission to initiate Phase II studies of Hynic-Annexin V technology. Initial studies under the IND are designed to provide information about product safety, biodistribution, imaging technique and optimal timing of imaging after chemotherapy in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer.

• Novartis Pharma AG, an affiliate of Novartis AG, of Basel, Switzerland, completed its purchase of 51 percent of the capital stock of Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass. In connection with the $255 million equity transaction, Idenix and Novartis entered agreements to jointly develop, manufacture and commercialize Idenix's antiviral drug candidates. (See BioWorld Today, March 27, 2003.)

• NsGene A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, and Neurotech SA, of Paris, signed a revised license agreement that expands the rights of NsGene and grants a worldwide exclusive license to encapsulated cell technology for the nervous system. The agreement replaces prior agreements between the parties, simplifies the division of fields and eliminates the cross-royalty obligations allowing both NsGene and Neurotech to focus on core areas, developing ECT products for the nervous system and eye, respectively.